A content management system (CMS) facilitates ongoing site management by separating content creation and updating from the design and technology needed to maintain an online presence. When those who create the content can easily update it, the publication process is streamlined and the maintenance workload drastically reduced. From WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) content editing areas similar to Microsoft Word, to function-rich modules, to auto-checking for broken links, a solid CMS can mean the difference between content that is relevant and content that is outdated.
What are the benefits of using a CMS?
Johns Hopkins has a wide variety of Web sites and pages with varying designs, navigation tools, and content relevance. Given the diverse needs of individual departments, centers, and offices, responsibility for site maintenance falls to many people in different locations and with varying skills who need controlled access to their sites to update specific information.
WordPress
The CMS known as WordPress is the world’s most popular tool for creating websites, more than 30% of all websites are built with WordPress. WordPress is capable of creating any style of website, from a simple blog to a full-featured business website. It is based on HTML, PHP, and runs Off of MySQL meaning that unlike traditional desktop software, WordPress runs online. There’s nothing to install on your computer, and you don’t need any special tools to manage it. You can update your website from anywhere that you have an Internet connection including your smartphone. One of the greatest benefits of utilizing WordPress is that there is no need for an editor to know a scripting language to make changes to their website. Here at Johns Hopkins WordPress is used extensively for a variety of purposes by both hospital and university Clients.
Html: Hypertext Markup Language
HTML or Hypertext Markup Language is the standard markup language used for web development. When used in conjunction with other technologies such as CSS and scripting languages such as PHP and JavaScript is can create an extremely customizable and dynamic website. When used alone, HTML can also be used to create static pages. HTML is the metaphorical foundation of a website built on it and its purpose is to formulate how a web browser displays a given webpage. However, Knowledge of HTML and scripting languages is required to make edits and additions to a website built on it.
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor PHP is a Programming language that was originally developed for Web development in 1994 by a man named Rasmus Lerdorf. Although initially PHP stood for Personal Home Page, it has since become a recursive acronym. PHP is highly versatile, in that it is compatible with the majority of operating systems and web servers. In addition to that, it can be used in the Command Line Interface (CLI), embedded into HTML, and within a CMS, such as WordPress. However, not unlike HTML, knowledge of a scripting language is required to utilize PHP to its fullest potential.